Benjamin has taken to quickly relearning all of the Christmas carols he knew last year. It is amazing how short-term a toddler's memory can be. He totally does not remember last year's Christmas AT ALL. So though it has been slightly repetative for us to reteach him all of these things, it also provides an opportunity to relive the most special moments all over again. We decorated the Christmas tree last week and every single ornament was brand new to him. Each time we pulled off the tissue paper that protects them in their storage boxes, Benjamin would let out a hearty "COOL!" Every glimpse of Christmas lights out of his car window is just as exciting. He's always on the lookout for a Frosty or blow up Santa or some facinating decoration. Last year we took him to a Macy's store in Illinois for their Breakfast with Santa event along with my parents. He was pretty scared of Santa back then. Well, really he was scared of anyone in a costume. Mom and Dad are living up here now, so we were hoping that the Macy's stores in the Twin Cities did the same event. Luckily, sometime before Thanksgiving Mom found an ad in the paper and immediately secured tickets to the breakfast at the Ridgedale Mall Macy's in Minnetonka. Once again we were highly impressed with the event! It was held in the restaurant attached to the store, which is just gorgeous. The Santa there was very cute and they even had elves on hand for face-painting and balloon hats/animals. The breakfast was okay - french toast, bacon and eggs. Benjamin had a blast, well ALL of us had a blast. He was definitely less afraid of Santa this year and more just in awe of him. All of the kids were given Christmas Wish List to fill out with what you wanted to ask Santa for and Benjamin/Grandma Chris dutifully filled it out and gave it to Santa. I wonder if he'll make the connection between those items and the ones he finds under the tree.

Mike and I once again ran the Reindeer Run race (how many synonyms of RUN can I get into one sentence!) around Lake Harriet in Minneapolis again. Katie tagged along this year as well.

It was cold and snowing first thing in the morning, but eventually the snow stopped and the sun came out, it was beautiful. There are quite literally thousands of people who run this race - many of them in elaborate costumes. It is lots of fun! After the race Katie and Dan had us over for some tasty chili at their new-ish home. We spent the rest of the weekend at Mom and Dad's watching football, dodging the snow and relaxing.

Benjamin started some preschool classes last Friday through Community Education. His daycare is also a preschool, so he won't attend a separate school until he goes to Kindergarden, but these classes give him an opportunity to learn and make friends outside of the daycare center. This week they learned all about Hanukkah and they will continue to learn about holiday celebrations around the world. So far we are big fans!

I honestly don't know how it can be that Christmas is only a little more than 2 weeks away. I am not ready! It certainly looks like Christmastime outside lately though - we just received another 7 inches of snow last night on top of the couple we already had. Time to pull out the sled!!!